Are you interested/accustomed in/to any particular guitar body shape?
For example if your current guitar is a strat shape, it may be a good idea to buy a better strat shape guitar, because you already know that shape well.

Of course thats not a rule or anything, I went from a Squier Strat to an Epiphone Les Paul, very different shapes, but it may be something you want to think about.

If you have any other preferences at all let us know, it'd be much easier to recommend a guitar that way, like do you like attacky/twangy funk guitar tone, or do you like deep/warm guitar tone, do you generally play with the same tone, or do you want to be able to change sound alot, have you been looking at any models that caught your eye already, etc etc.

SplinterByMyOwnDesign

07-26-2007, 05:07 AM

I currently have an Ashton, which is kinda like an Australian version of the Squier, but a little better. It's a starter guitar, but I’ve been playing almost 3 years; So it's time for an upgrade.

I want a guitar that has the ability to change its tone a fair bit, but will mainly have a warm kind of tone to it. I really like the sound of the guitars Foo Fighters use the most.

But I also need something that is going to deliver a crisp clean sound at the same time, though I definatly don't want a Fender. So I’d be leaning more towards Gibson I suppose.

Another problem is that I also need an acoustic as I don't have one yet, so maybe a hollow body would be a good idea?

Maybe a hollow body with a distortion pedal or two?

mrconeman

07-26-2007, 05:56 AM

To be honest buying one guitar to do two jobs is probably a bad idea. Especially a hollow body to act as your main electric and acoustic. I'd get your next electric and just start saving again for an acoustic, or leave it until you can start saving, or whatever.

I'm leaning toward reccomending you an Epiphone Les Paul, they get that deep/warm tone, and are known for giving pretty good cleans, either by turning off any distortion or just lowering the volume knobs, the pickups clean up well at low volumes. They are a branch owned by Gibson to, so they still are official Les Paul guitars, and if you buy a high end one (which you will afford with your budget), you've got a great guitar. To be honest a pickup switch and maybe some re-wiring and you've got a guitar easily comparable to mid range Gibson Les Pauls. At your budget you could get yourself a nice Epiphone Les Paul custom;

If you are set on a hollow body though, check out Epiphones hollow body range, Epiphone are actually famously known for making great hollow body guitars, but I think most of them are a little out of your price range.

SplinterByMyOwnDesign

07-26-2007, 08:13 AM

Sweet, yeah, I think i might do this:

The price of a Les Paul custom is $975.00 (AU)

BUT, I will wait till christmas end of year sales, so they become even cheaper, then try to haggle their price down as much as possible (Hopefully 750 or so)

Then buy an Acoustic of value around $500-700. ;)

A few questions... Does that LP Custom have a whammy bar?

And I also did play one of those LP Customs the other week in a music shop, the Action was nice and low, and it was a fucking amazingly easy-playing guitar. Sounded great with one of the Boss Distortion Pedals I used for playing a few solo's.

mrconeman

07-26-2007, 08:18 AM

Seems like you've got it all planned out. ;)

But nope, I don't think any Les Paul comes stock with a Whammy bar. You can have one fitted though, but I really have no idea as to how much it would cost to buy and then to have it fitted. That's the one drawback I'd put on my Les Paul, it's the only limit I find myself running into, the lack of a whammy bar, but still I'd never put one on it, I think they look gross on Les Pauls lawl, the bridge type on a Les Paul probably isn't great for whammy action either. Personally I'm just going to wait until my next electric and get something with a bar then, probably some kind of Strat, or one of those super strats, like a Ibanez JEM or something fancy like that.

SplinterByMyOwnDesign

07-26-2007, 08:31 AM

Would a Epiphone Les Paul be a better choice rather than a Ibanez Prestige model? Because with $1200 I could easily pick up a Prestige Ibanez...

mrconeman

07-26-2007, 08:38 AM

It's hard to really compare such different models of guitar, but I haven't even actually played a Prestige.

One thing I haven't mentioned but is very important here is that this is your guitar, make sure you don't just go by my preferences, ask to play all of the guitars in your price range that you would consider in your local shops, which ever one feels and sounds best to you should be it.